Jonah 3:10

God noted the genuineness of the Ninevites’ repentance in their actions. These fruits of repentance moved Him to withhold the judgment that He would have sent on them had they persisted in their wicked ways. Repentance is essentially a change in one’s thinking. Change in one’s behavior indicates that repentance has taken place, but behavioral change is the fruit of repentance and is not all there is to repentance (cf. Matthew 3:7-10). Nineveh finally experienced overthrow in 612 B.C., about 150 years later.

"We may know the character of God only from what he does and the words he uses to explain his actions. When he does not do what he said he would, we as finite men can say only that he has changed his mind or repented, even though we should recognize, as Jonah did (Jonah 4:2), that he had intended or desired this all along." [Note: Ellison, "Jonah," pp. 383-84. Cf. Feinberg, p. 37. See also Thomas L. Constable, "What Prayer Will and Will Not Change," in Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 99-113; and Robert B. Chisholm Jr., "Does God ’Change His Mind’?" Bibliotheca Sacra 152:608 (October-December 1995):387-99.]

"That God should choose to make his own actions contingent-at least in part-upon human actions is no limitation of his sovereignty. Having first decided to place the option of obedience and disobedience before nations, his holding them responsible for their actions automatically involves a sort of contingency. He promises blessing if they repent, punishment if not (cf. Jeremiah 18:7-10). But this hardly makes God dependent on the nations; it rather makes them dependent on him, as is the point of the lesson at the potter’s house in Jeremiah 18:1-11, and the point of the mourning decree in Jonah 3:5-9. God holds all the right, all the power, and all the authority." [Note: Stuart, p. 496.]

"Helpful also is the analogy of the thermometer. Is it changeable or unchangeable? The superficial observer says it is changeable, for the mercury certainly moves in the tube. But just as certainly it is unchangeable, for it acts according to fixed law and invariably responds precisely to the temperature." [Note: Gaebelein, p. 111.]

Notice that in this section of verses (Jonah 3:5-10) the name "God" (Heb. Elohim, the strong one) appears exclusively. However the name "LORD" (Heb. Yahweh, the covenant keeping God) occurs frequently earlier and later in the story. Jonah did not present God, and the Ninevites did not fear God, as the covenant keeping God of Israel but as the universal Supreme Being. Likewise God did not deal with the Ninevites as He dealt with His covenant people Israel but as He deals with all people generally. Thus the story teaches that God will be merciful to anyone, His elect and His non-elect, who live submissively to natural divine law (cf. Genesis 9:5-6).

If such a remarkable turnaround really did occur in Nineveh, why is there no other historical record of it?

"First of all, the extant records are comparatively few. There are large segments of undocumented history. Second, there was a serious, pronounced bias in recording history that gave only the most favorable of impressions." [Note: Page, p. 265.]